15. Saving Mafeking With Theatrics
To strengthen his barbed wire deception and further mislead the Boer watchers, Baden-Powell had his men drop to the ground whenever they reached a line of wooden posts – wooden posts that had no barbed wire between them. The defenders would then crawl “beneath” the imaginary barbed wire to get to the other side, before getting back on their feet, dusting themselves off, and carrying on.
With the help of bluffs such as the fake super landmines and imaginary barbed wire, coupled with a heavy dose of stubborn and bloody resistance when the situation warranted, Baden-Powell fought off the enemy and withstood the Boer siege for 217 days. He held on to Mafeking until he was finally relieved by the arrival of a British army that chased off the Boers and lifted the siege.
